Marvellous Maeve Higgins has an apparently meandering style that conceals some seismic punchlines. Now resident in the US, she reveals how running a comedy workshop in Iraq and podcasting with different immigrants has led her to a more global consciousness. She shares some brilliant writing "cheats" for silencing your inner critic, and we explore in detail the close relationships she has cultivated with the editors of her novels and column...

Provocative, disarmingly frank and very funny, Ola is an emphatic voice in British comedy. As well as getting into the nitty-gritty of his creativity, we discuss Ola's faith as the foundation of his self-belief, and take a whirlwind tour through #WhiteTears, intersectionality and how he feels about wielding the racial discomfort of his audience...

Dane Baptiste is raising the bar for articulate, socially-conscious stand-up, and pulls no intellectual punches in this conversation, which takes in chakras, Arthur Maslow's hierarchy of needs and transcendental perception... We talk about what it means to be the first black Briton to be nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award; why validation, gratification and dopamine aren't the end goal; and why he's a goofball.

Uniquely funny and inventive stand-up Howard Read has recently been performing a double-act with an animated cartoon child version of himself. We discuss the madness behind his method, explore the hazards of improvising double-act banter with oneself, and learn what he can and can't get away with...

A superb comedian story-teller, Sarah Kendall's work is suffused with genuine meaning. She talks vividly here about controlling her anxiety and the aftermath of a nervous breakdown. We also delve into some specifics, including the financial imperative of turning over new work annually, and how she had to re-discover her audience after time away from the fringe...

Get ad-free new episodes, bonus content from interviews and much more by joining the Insiders Club at www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders

Fuelled by a seemingly-bottomless well of anger, and capable of articulating it hilariously, Michael Legge rages that life isn't as beautiful as it should be. We learn how his own righteous ire mimics that of his bulletproof mum, discover the origins of twitter game #FuckAThing, and just at the end get him to say something pretentious about art.

Responsible for some of the funniest and most intelligent one-liners in the world, Simon Munnery has a brain like none other. Rarely will you find another comic so enthralled by serving "the idea", whether through Kierkegaardian prose or innovative but unreliable technology. Simon reveals his approach to writing epigrammatic jokes, and Stu gently bullies him into trying harder to get back on TV.

One of the most iconoclastic, pioneering and influential comedians in Britain, Stewart Lee has forged his post-punk ideals into a thrillingly funny live act, with the very form at his fingertips.
We explore the deliberately uncomfortable tension between the man and the stage persona; discuss his self-imposed exclusion from the comedy community; and investigate his unshakeable conviction that he is in fact unsuccessful.